Here’s the tweet roundup for the Arbortext User Meeting for August 2010. The speaker was Todd Nowlan talking about “Deploying and maintaining a large single-sourcing solution: Now what?”. As expected, it was a great presentation. As one attendee said his presentation was paced perfectly to allow everyone to understand the complexity of this kind of solution and the benefits you get from moving to XML.

If you want to see the original description, hop on over to the Arbortext PTC/User group August Meeting page to read the abstract. Or, if you want to see the slides and video, go here.

Also, if you want to hear more from Todd, he was a guest on the PubWright podcast available here or on iTunes. He’s also a panelist on the upcoming webinar – “ROI of XML”.

See you all next month!

	Single-Sourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 5:20pm Arbortext User Meeting August 2010
	SingleSourcing Aug 19, 2010 at 12:05am http://www.sfbayptcuser.org/blog/2010/05/aug10mtg/
	SF Bay Arbortext PTC/User Blog » Blog Archive » August 2010 Meeting Announcement: Deploying and maintaining a large single-sourcing solution: Now what? – A resource for the Arbortext Community
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 10:10am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: dancing that fine line between business requirement and the solution is an area that needs focus
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 10:06am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: even before implementing, we had a corporate course that talked about how use the system (overview, authoring)
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 10:05am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: question: what kind of “homework” should we do before making a decision to leave traditional tools?
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 10:00am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: at one time we had 400 writers in the user community
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:58am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: .. and yet notwithstanding go out to meeting” Thucydides
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:58am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: “The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike…
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:57am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: down to one toolset and one process
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:57am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: enabled customer ability to search based on job function, metadata provided an extra dimention to content
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:56am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: enabled outsource partners to easily access source globally
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:56am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: implemented a robust metadata/taxonomy strategy
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:56am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: maximized our single-sourcing and reuse of content
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:55am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: improved our delivery for customers
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:55am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: improved our delivery channel agility
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:55am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: what we set out to do vs what we achieved? We did it all and more.
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:55am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: single sourcing systems the benefits far outweigh the costs
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:55am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: Very low cost that a single-sourcing environment can be. A single system with a single CMS.
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:54am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: business support cost: ~5 people doing support to user community, as little as 2 people to maintain system
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:53am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: from a cost standpoint, infrastructure costs for us is around $150K (includes SW maintenance)
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:52am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: communication with users, business stakeholders, and vendors is critical
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:52am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: the system as a whole was being used globally, so around the clock we had to be aware of changes/downtimes/etc
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:51am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: weekly change management meetings to review and approve required changes (inc server maintenance schedules)
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:50am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: constant interaction with vendors is critical, understand (and *influence*) their future rollout plans
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:49am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: some projects had to go through architecture review board for approval
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:49am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: projects prioritized with business leaders
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:49am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: core team and/or IT scheduled to work: design, UAT, deploy; progress reports weekly with biz stakeholders
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:48am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: change management requests initiated and tracked as projects.
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:48am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: Info Arch. team had representatives from each of the Business Units
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:47am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: standing committee for establishing writing guidelines and standards, focused on topic-oriented writing
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:47am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: profiles very powerful concept. Centrally controlled to get consistentcy acr organizations (req by high reuse)
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:46am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: custom scripts to streamline and improve writer tasks added to Arbortext Editor’s UI (bulit-in)
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:45am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: documentum/Arbortext editor – dtds/stylesheets download to desktop; patch upgrades w/instr. posted to server
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:44am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: Largely, deployed to user desktops, citrix for users with performance challenges
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:43am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: could get separate files or merged/flattened file that would re-burst into the individ entities in CMS
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:42am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: about our CMS. It supported our ability to configure “publishables” or “deliverable” documents
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:41am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: it’s amazing how much DTD changes drives effort. It can impact all books, all organizations, all stylesheets
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:41am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: Arbortext Styler with extensions had much faster compose times
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:41am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: went to Arbortext Styler with extensions — with PTC we had input into product direction
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:39am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: DTD development & matching stylesheets is a webinar topic of its own
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:38am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: hierarchical structures also give more common look & feel
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:38am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: hierarchical structures have more semantic meaning; less flexible but promotes consistent writing
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:37am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: downside later on, still need to do the work to go from “unstructred” to “structured” (no escaping it)
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:36am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: we wanted people in the system first; we found this was successful
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:36am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: unstructured->docbook, topic-based->DITA; changing unstructured to structured can be a stumbling block
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:35am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: we took two pronged approach to accelerate data conversion and get in as fast as possible..
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:40am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: started with xsl-fo, large docs took (>1500pgs) took excessive amts of time to compose (sometimes hrs)
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:39am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: we built an application on Arbortext Publishing Engine that did auto-output to 4 deliverables simultaneously
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:34am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: really gets you a lot of efficiencies
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:34am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: getting into the world of XML provides a tremendous amount of power over your content
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:33am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: “Before there were parsers, it was dark.” – Eric Hennum, DITA Architect. No truer statement was made.
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:33am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: be articulate in your UAT as a project on it’s own (for each component of the architecture)
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:32am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: at one point, I was branded “XML evangelist” and that’s kind of what happens…
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:32am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: you’ll get more skillsets around a technology that is becoming very prevalent in the industry
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:32am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: keep users aware of “what’s in it for them”
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:32am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: Even structured authoring in Frame can be different when you take the formatting part away from that..
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:31am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: keeping the pace of development is key to keeping the momentum going and migration of new groups in
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:31am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: prioritization of groups was based on prioritization of the development
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:29am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: setting clear acceptance criteria not only with user community, but with the leadership team as well
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:29am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: Hit areas we never expected to see, all along the way, gaps appear when you do prototyping/UAT
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:28am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: UAT was something we focused on early on. Get key stakeholders involved in use casing, prototyping
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:28am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: getting more and more into the system..
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:28am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: getting them up to same level of capability, then extending, then refining formatting issues, then automating
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:27am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: first step was to get the techpubs in. They had the best/most informed view on structured authoring
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:26am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: we took the approach of prioritizing and grouping into phases, a very large project overall
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:25am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: DLM is a link repository to store links so reusable components get help for managing content and reuse
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:24am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: DLM to manage links b/c we have tremendous reuse going on w/in project and across project.
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:23am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: stored content in CMS based on configuration rules
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:21am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: Didn’t use DITA – it was a timing thing. Focused on topic-oriented & at the time DITA wasn’t ready
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:20am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: came at it from an end-to-end solution standpoint
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:20am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: xml contains content and metadata leveraged throughout entire process (authoring/cms/delivery)
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:19am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: delivery: web portal, dvd, online (onproduct) help
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:19am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: Arbortext Editor, Publishing Engine, Dynamic Link Manager & Documentum
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:18am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: key requirement to reduce publishing time frame to hours rather than days
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:18am #arbortext #ptcuser T.Nowlan: optimize by going to XML-type, single-sourcing solution, topic-based information
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:18am #arbortext #ptcuser provide a scalable ECM environment that can handle- Large vol of info, multiple content types, global access
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:17am #arbortext #ptcuser get requirements signed off early on by business owners: A lot of communication involved up front
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:16am #arbortext #ptcuser Tracking to granular level makes sure your requirements are well understood (even if it’s a lot of work).
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:16am #arbortext #ptcuser the minute you deploy a new system, it becomes a legacy system.
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:16am #arbortext #ptcuser identify current-state business process, derive base requirements and trace them through tracability matricies
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:15am #arbortext #ptcuser for large program, get a variety of people involved for best success
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:14am #arbortext #ptcuser core business team (3) IT team (4) worked tightly together to develop the single-sourcing system -> ECMS was key
	SingleSourcing Aug 28, 2010 at 9:13am “Deploying and maintaining a large single-sourcing solution” Register & Sign in now! https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/987710090

by Liz Fraley

Top Sessions from PTC/User 2010: Arbortext Ask the Experts and Arbortext Strategy

Every year, the Ask the Experts panel always has the most attendees. This year, the new Arbortext Strategy session rivaled attendance levels, and for good reason.

Although both sessions are hosted by the Arbortext Business Unit, the strategy session provides a lot of information for attendees about where the business is going, as well as what their plans are as a company and as a business unit. The business unit is a new concept for both PTC and for their customers this year, as well. This session really helps us all plan our futures together.

The new General Manager, Bill Berutti, did an excellent job laying out the strategy of the Arbortext Business Unit going forward. Arbortext is focused on helping customers get the right information out to the field. To date, this has been easier said than done. First, it’s hard to be an expert at all things. Second, access to the right information — finding the right page number when you need it — is essential to happy customers and critical to success.

PTC has spent $300M on Arbortext since the acquisition in 2005. There are 170 people in Arbortext R&D and over 1000 support personnel. Greater than 1/2 of the employees in the Arbortext Business Unit are R&D. They are all people with very specialized domain skills.

PTC has been focused on, let’s call it plastic surgery. Smoothing the wrinkles. Reshaping the products so they fit together better and require less work by their customers to implement, use, or otherwise interact with. Different products are no longer simply stitched together: they’re blended. They resonate with each other rather than act as sources of discord or cause friction for customers.

The result, and the resulting strategy, is to provide what is truly an out-of-the-box full solution and not simply a set of tools. They are crossing the lines in the sand that traditional vendors have drawn. They’re coming at this like well-trained, board certified surgeons rather than Dr Frankenstein.  They’re blending the separate products into one smooth, integrated, single-vendor solution.

Caterpillar

Caterpillar from Alameda County Fair 2010

The other highlight of the strategy session was getting to hear from Caterpillar for the first time in a very long time. Caterpillar is on the bleeding edge of enterprise content strategy. They have a wide array of products and customers and an extremely complex product. They support a dealer network in, literally, every country in the world. Their products have a long lifecycle, often exceeding 50 years.

Dealers sell parts, perform service, and are the primary customer for Caterpillar’s service manuals. Caterpillar cannot require anything of their dealers because each dealer is it’s own business. (One dealer is older than Caterpillar!)

Caterpillar has:

• 4M machines
• Average product life-span: 19.8 years
• No product is ever end of lifed, support is guaranteed always
• 3M machines are out there in the wild
• 270K Engineering Change Notices annually, affecting 1-100 part numbers
• 30K illustrations
• 53 languages
• 230K unique customers
• 20M hits on their service information website every day
• 5000 published service information/content pieces

Some of their dealers do not have internet, so their solution must be complete, it must be robust, and it must support a disconnected service model. In addition, they’ve found that technician competency is down and they need their information to change with the times.
They want every customer to be able to:

• Find the information
• Understand it
• Trust it

Caterpillar’s technical information impacts every transaction at every dealer every day. They want their customer to have the right part, the right service, every time, any place.  Originally, they were a DIY project that has, over the years, become a spaghetti system. They’re ready to change with the times and there are a lot more options today than there were 15 years ago. Today, they want a true solution. They want to get out of the IT business. They built it themselves when there was no other option. Today, they see a better way and they’re ready to move forward with a true enterprise solution. It’s simpler for everyone.  They see the new Arbortext Service Information System (SIS) as the key to making that move. They’re looking at PTC as a partner, who will help them implement this truly integration solution. A partner that will deliver a strong strategic solution.  And this is how they’re doing it.

SIS is the same strategic picture that Bill Berutti painted–come to life. It’s also the end result of the same lessons-learned that everyone was talking about at CMS/DITA NA. More than ever before, content has enterprise-level impact. It’s a strategic initiative that impacts the entire business. The companies that take the discussion out of the techpubs groups are the ones who will be successful in the long run. They’ll be the ones beating their competitors to market and winning again and again once they’re there. Their content will be consistent across all parts of the enterprise. Content already drives business and has the potential to make customers wildly successful (or not).

Where do you want to be?

by Liz Fraley

Every year, PTC/User improves for Arbortext users. This was the first year we had to turn presenters away. It was also the first year we didn’t have to extend the submission deadline because there were so many great presentation submitted. For me, PTC/User is like Summer Camp. The same folks come frequently enough (every year or every other year) that you start to recognize them and look forward to finding what they’ve done personally and professionally in the last year. You grow your expertise through collaboration and personal relationships. You give back.  This year was no exception. Despite the recession, Arbortext attendee numbers were up overall (AGAIN).

My favorite two sessions were the User-to-User panel and the Formatter Shootout. Each was well attended. The Shootout grew much bigger than expected. Originally, the presentation had three technology representatives: FOSI, XSL-FO, and APP (3B2). At the last minute, we added Zarella Rendon, representing Styler. It’s always interesting to see how the other side approaches the same problem. (15% of Arbortext attendees were APP/3B2 users.)

At PTC/User, the PTC product managers attend each session. It gives them a good insight as well to hear what customers are really doing. The Shootout and the User-to-User panel were fertile ground for them to see how different customers have adopted the different technologies to what end results.

All Software is designed with particular usage in mind and, invariably, all software gets used in ways the original designers never expected. As a programmer who’s written lots of scripts that “were never meant for production”, I know first-hand how they always, always end up in production. User sessions are great forums for learning new tricks and new possibilities. And we all learned about situations where we might benefit by adopting one another’s technology. Luckily, as Arbortext customers, we have all FOUR technologies right at our fingertips!

Take a look at some of the pictures from this year’s event in our Flickr stream.

by Eric Flynn

From attending the recent PTC User Conference, it appears we are in the midst of a paradigm shift and it will be every bit as significant as the move from desktop publishing to structured content management.  This shift will be from book publishing to dynamic content delivery.  Think about where we have come in the last decade: we use electronic tools to create, publish and maintain our publications, but we still interact with these publications in exactly the same way as their printed counterparts: page-by-page, through an index or glossary or a rudimentary keyword search.

Also, the creative process is the same: anticipate what the customer is going to need and put it in a book.  This pattern of “predictive publishing” breaks down in the face of highly customizable products, since it is impractical to cover every option or configuration that might occur in a single manual.  Also, this publishing model breaks down for products that present a complicated set of features to the user; it is difficult and time-consuming to sift through a large amount of documentation to find help with the task at hand.

PTC’s answer to this problem is the next phase in electronic publishing: Service Information Systems.  Take for example the problem of navigation.  For years, we have hassled with paper maps or Thomas Guides, trying to flip pages and drive to our destination.  This rather haphazard and indeed hazardous process has now been supplanted by GPS-driven navigation systems.  The two key properties of such systems is that they are contextual and interactive.  That is, they are specialized to the task to be performed and they provide an interface that is appropriate to the context.

So, how do you leverage the new generation of tools that are forth-coming from PTC?  First, it almost goes without saying that you will need to be doing structured content management.  Second, if you have not done so already, adopt a Content Management System.  Service Information Systems will be driven from their content databases, so this step is vital.  Finally, be sure that your rendering tools can produce content viewable in ProductView, as this will be the first supported platform for viewing dynamic content.  Stay tuned!